1Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA.

Abstract

Higher rates of hepatitis C virus (HCV) recurrence and lower response to HCV anti-viral therapy contribute to the lower post-liver transplantation (LT) survival among African Americans with HCV. The current study aims to evaluate race/ethnicity-specific and etiology-specific factors contributing to lower post-LT survival among African Americans in the U.S. The 2002-2012 United Network for Organ Sharing registry was utilized to evaluate race/ethnicity-specific post-LT survival among patients with HCV, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), alcoholic liver disease (ALD), nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, and cryptogenic cirrhosis. From 2002-2012, HCV was the leading indication for LT. While African Americans accounted for 9.5% of all LT during this period, they had the lowest overall and etiology-specific 5-year post-LT survival. On multivariate Cox proportional hazards modeling, African Americans had significantly lower post-LT survival compared to non-Hispanic whites among patients with HCV (HR, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.19-1.41), HCC (HR, 1.49; 95% CI, 1.25-1.79) and ALD (HR, 1.52; 95% CI, 1.19-1.94). In conclusion, African Americans had the lowest post-LT survival among patients with HCV, HCC and ALD. Race/ethnicity and the etiology of chronic liver disease were observed to have a combined detrimental effect leading to lower survival following LT in African Americans.